Grassroots Effort to Force State Probe of Rockwood School District Moving Forward

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EUREKA, Mo. (KMOX) – The effort to trigger a state audit of the Rockwood School District is moving forward.

A group calling itself “Rockwood Stakeholders for Real Solutions” is concerned about a conflict of interest between the Rockwood School District and a contractor that employs Board President Steve Smith, which they claim has received several no-bid contracts.

Eileen Tyrrell has been acting as the group’s spokesperson.

When she initially heard that the office of state auditor Tom Schweich would require at least five-thousand petition signatures to authorize the probe Tyrrell balked at the idea, calling it unneccessary
busy-work.

But now she believes it’s do-able and in fact hopes to submit between 5,500 to 6,000 names to Schweich’s office by December 1st, despite the fact they have three years to collect those signatures.

“You can look at it two ways,” Tyrrell explained to KMOX News. “Fifty-five people collect a hundred signatures, or a hundred-and-ten people collect fifty signatures. And we already exceed that on our membership list.”

According to a statement released by the group, the intent of the requested audit is to assure that taxpayers within the Rockwood School District that the school board’s operations are “in accordance and compliance with the regulations, laws and statutes of the State of MIssouri”.

“Yes, we are a little frustrated at this ‘needless’ work (collecting signatures),” Tyrrell said. “But also it gives an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of having these audits.”